Greening Existing Buildings [Giveaway]

We are giving away one (1) copy of this book to a random commenter, so make sure to comment before the end of Friday, January 29, 2010.*

There's no question that the big topic in the industry these days is greening existing buildings. Whether through the LEED-EBOM program or something else, the existing building stock requires a sustainable update. And if you're looking for a thorough and authoritative book on the topic, I'd like to recommend Greening Existing Buildings by Jerry Yudelson. Published by McGraw-Hill, the GreenSource Series book includes over 25 case studies of successful green building renovations.

Yudelson provides ten best practices for greening existing buildings and helps the reader understand how to manage a LEED-EBOM certification process. Greening Existing Buildings is meant for owners, developers, project managers, and facility directors, but most anyone else will find useful nuggets of expertise.

Jerry Yudelson, founder of Yudelson Associates, also gathers information from roughly 35 interviews of industry professionals to cover these topics, as well as some others:

Economic drivers and market dynamics;

Getting the EPA's Energy Star rating;

Making the business case for greening existing buildings;

Cost of greening and setting realistic project budgets;

Energy efficient building upgrades;

Sustainable site management and water conservation retrofits;

Crafting purchasing and waste management policies; and

Upgrading indoor environmental quality.

If you're looking for a resource on the topic, head to your nearest bookstore or Amazon to grab a copy. Amazon has Greening Existing Buildings for just over $70 right now.

*If you're interested in winning a copy of this book, drop a comment by midnight MST on Friday, January 29, 2010. Say where you're from if you don't know what to say. By leaving a comment, you agree to the terms and conditions relating to giveaways on Jetson Green.

I’ve been an RSS reader of your blog for many months now and really enjoy the variety of subjects covered. I’m a newly-certed BPI home auditor with a passion for green-ish topics and information. I currently live in the Philadelphia area and I hope I win the book!

It’s nice to see attention paid (and a book written) about greening existing buildings. While it may not be as exciting as a new project–it is essential that we begin to focus on existing buildings in a BIG. I would love to win this book and read what the author has to say!–kg

Just interviewed today for a small project planned for an old 2-story, storefront building in overwhelmingly un-green Fort Wayne, IN. The client wants to use the space as a combined fresh market, deli/cafe, and CSA delivery warehouse. Greening this existing building is, needless to say, a high priority.

This looks like an awesome book. There are far more existing buildings than there are proposed new ones so it would make a lot of sense to focus a substantial amount of effort on them. Good stuff! I’m in DC so USGBC, take note.

We usually find books out there about how to build new buildings in a sustainable way, but what about all the already built environment that has been created with out such criteria. I´d love to read that book.

As a sustainability manager for a school district, we are continually looking at finding new ways to green our schools. This helps save tax dollars and creates a better learning environment for students. I’d be interested to see what suggestions are made in this book.

Greening existing buildings is a great way to reduce the carbon footprint in construction. Renovate to Passive House Standards for low-energy use and you have a great combination- lower utility costs, reduced green house gas emissions, maintained embodied energy and revitalized neighborhoods. Greening Existing Buildings sounds like a terrific book.

Identified as one of the most promising trends for the construction industry as well as for the field of sustainable building, energy retrofits will dominate the discussion in green building for the next several years. The convergence of rapid energy modeling, BIM and collaborative design will make revisiting our existing building stock the sensible thing to do while new construction starts recover from lagging credit markets.

I believe that with today’s Real Estate Market down turn, Greening existing building is an excellent “repositioning” strategy for the owner. Let’s go out and evangelizing vigorously!

Also, for individual home owner, this is the time to learn about “design thinking” strategy, rather than be polluted by the glossy magazine on “LUX LIVING”. Greening a home is a remarkable experience that one can share with family and friends.

Working as a Construction Superintendent in in NYC (Blyn and Manhattan) I supervised the gutting and rehab-ing of many fine buildings. As a British trained builder I lamented the energy conservation ignorance of the US trained architects and project leaders of these high value projects. Northern Europe started getting wise to energy as a cost issue after the Oil price shocks of the mid to late 1970’s. Nice to see the US finally catching up. Looks like a very good book … compulsory reading for gut rehab pros.

As a student in Environmental Science at the University of Ulster,and with one of the current major issues in our school at the moment being Sustainability and Sustainable development. We are presently trying to encourage sustainability practices within our campus. I’d be interested to see what suggestions are made in this book, and would thoroughly enjoy reading it and it would be an interesting book to share with others interested within the uni.

As an HVAC instructor training apprentices located in the Chicago market, in the art of HVAC system servicing , I think it is important that they are aware the the growing demand for green buildings, and keeping them green over the life of the building.

The effectiveness of “greening” in real life has probably much to do with user awareness. Buildings can certainly be optimized for better performance in many ways, lower ecological footprint, less energy consumptive, “greener” etc, but the end user behaviour is still the final touch-stone. We CAN design and build, or at least we should know how to do it, but what does it take to get the owner, the tenant, and each and every one of us into making conscious daily decisions? What are the tricks to trigger sensible choices? In the framework of existing built volume this task is an exciting challenge – –

With the modern trends in architecture, it is but important to be updated about the advancements in transforming industrial, commercial and residential buildings to the eco-friendly giant which could both save the owners tons of money, converted to profit and put a hand as well in sharing a cause for the environment.
Green is in nowadays, this book i believe is indeed a good read. Evidence-based at that and up-to-date.

its a shame that new construction is so much more exciting/sexy than work on existing buildings. hopefully books like this can help people wake up to see the potential in using and “greening” existing infrastructure and buildings

The challenge of existing buildings primarily is access to cavities within walls, crawl spaces, attics, plenums, shafts etc. While doing so, it is critical to be conscious of breathability as the buildings are further isolated from Natural elements. The irony of Green Design approaches is that although the materials are new and improved, the methods are traditional and we continue to attempt to suppress Nature in order to be more Green. Bio-mimicry implies the incorporation of the ebb and flow of Nature which remains my personal goal as a building designer.

Greening existing buildings should be the core environmental effort everywhere, and Jerry Yudelson’s case studies in “Greening Existing Buildings” are just what we need to move us in the right direction. We’re going to build a lot of new green buildings over the next twenty crucial years. But all of them put together wouldn’t hold a carbon candle to the potential impact we could have on greenhouse gas reduction and improving everyone’s well-being if we focused on retrofitting existing buildings everywhere.

I work for one of South Africa’s leading property developers and we are striving to incorporate sustainable building principles in all our existing, and also future developments around the country. Yudelson’s Greening Existing Buildings sounds like the exact ‘green bible’ we need to continue driving these goals!

I want to add on to my House this spring or early summer because of our adopting a child. if this could save us money we sure can use it. we live in the centre of Nova Scotia on the Indian Brook reserve. we would rather channel our money to the children upbringing rather than the power utilities.
Thank You
Alan K